


you've got nothing to prove

by QuietLittleVoices



Series: there's always someone cooler than you [2]
Category: King Falls AM (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Drunk Speeches, Engagement Party, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-28
Updated: 2019-07-28
Packaged: 2020-07-23 22:15:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20015647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuietLittleVoices/pseuds/QuietLittleVoices
Summary: It was about time when Sammy and Jack got engaged, if anyone asked Ben. They didn’t, usually, even though he was there when it happened, but still. Ben had only been waiting for it since he was thirteen, he figured he had some right to be impatient.





	you've got nothing to prove

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place about 10 years after the first fic! You don't have to read that to understand this, but this does make extensive reference to the first one. This is mostly just silliness.

It was about time when Sammy and Jack got engaged, if anyone asked Ben. They didn’t, usually, even though he was there when it happened, but still. Ben had only been waiting for it since he was thirteen, he figured he had some right to be impatient. Sammy and Jack hadn’t wanted an engagement party, but Ben had insisted and had taken the work of renting out a room and going to PartyCity on himself. 

Then Lily saw the decorations he’d bought and redid everything. (He was pretty sure she hadn’t gone to PartyCity for anything she got). Lily also took over everything else, including the guest list, which meant that she invited Emily Potter, the librarian that Ben had spent the last few months visiting at work, and Ben was trying to act very cool and chill about that entire situation even though she was sitting across the room from him chatting with Lily.

Ben had to admit that Lily’s decorating had gone better than the multicolour mess he still had sitting in the back of his car. It was all sleek silvers and blacks - maybe a bit  _ mature _ because they were turning 25 not 52. Professional would be a good word, Ben decided. 

Sammy and Jack seemed happy, or at least they seemed to not notice one way or the other, and that was the most important thing. They were showing more PDA than Ben had ever witnessed from them before, which was to say they spent most of the party holding hands in front of the ten people who’d been invited. They’d both said some words to thank everyone who’d shown up, but other than that it had mostly been a normal dinner party. 

Near the end of dinner and four glasses of almost too-sweet wine later, though, Ben decided that it’s his turn for storytime. 

“Most of you know me -” Ben announced, pushing himself up from his chair and putting a hand on the back of it, trying to look cool as people start to giggle and he realized that, yeah, there weren’t many people here and he knew them all as well as Sammy and Jack did, so he skipped introducing himself. “As you all know, I’ve known Sammy forever - he was my first best friend. He still  _ is _ , and always will be,” Ben added quickly, giving Sammy a pointed look that makes Sammy roll his eyes and suddenly reminded Ben of - something. Something he had to struggle to grab hold of in the haze of his brain, something he hadn’t thought of in a long time, but when he finally does pull it to the forefront he almost started laughing before he even talks. “Sammy’s an old man -”

“Hey!”

“So he went to high school first,” Ben continued. “Which is where he met Jack. Jack was the  _ only _ thing Sammy could talk to me about until they started dating - yes, in the ninth grade, which works because they have an epic romance - but I didn’t even know that was a possibility back then. I just thought Sammy had found a new best friend who was cooler than me, and I  _ hated  _ Jack so much -”

“Wait,” Jack interrupted quickly. “Seriously?”

Ben nodded and he saw Sammy trying not to laugh next to him. “Oh yeah. I had a whole notebook about ways to make Sammy hate you so he would forget about his new cooler best friend. If I had Professor X powers you’d be dead from how many mean thoughts I put in your direction.”

Jack looked confused and a bit taken aback. “When did that end? I think you hugged me when we first met. We had sleepovers in high school!”

Ben shrugged. “It was before we met? I thought you were trying to be his new best friend, and we ended up getting in a fight. But then Sammy told me he had a crush on you, so it was fine after that.”

“I remember -” Jack paused, collecting his thoughts, because he’d had just as much wine as Ben even if he wasn’t as much of a lightweight. “I remember that Sammy was upset about that right before he introduced us, I think? I thought he was ignoring me because - because I kissed him,” Jack admitted, blushing suddenly like he hadn’t expected to say that.

Sammy was grinning and reached around Jack’s shoulder to jostle it a little, pulling him a little closer to Sammy. It encouraged Ben to keep talking.

“No! That was the first thing Sammy told me about after the fight but it was ‘cause I was being a jealous preteen,” Ben assured him.

“You got mad last week because Sammy mentioned talking to some of our coworkers,” Jack pointed out, and Ben held up his hands to show innocence.

“I’ve grown but I’m still me,” Ben agreed. “Once I knew that you wanted to be his  _ boyfriend _ and not steal my spot as best friend, I was excited to meet you! Sammy was always too scared to watch the X-Files with me back then so I couldn’t wait to meet someone who would.”

“Too scared?” Jack asked, looking between Sammy and Ben. “He told me he’d never seen it before and he told me all these facts about the episodes.”

“Because  _ I _ told him those when we watched it!” Ben laughed. “He was just trying to impress you.”

Sammy shrugged. “It worked, didn’t it?”

Jack nodded and gave Sammy a look so full of love that Ben had to look away. He ended up accidentally looking at Emily and knew that he would have blushed if his face wasn’t already bright red from the wine. “I think I got away from the point,” Ben said slowly. “Which was that - I love you both a lot, and I’m  _ so _ happy that this is how everything worked out. I kinda thought that one of you guys was gonna propose two years ago after your graduation ceremony, but… I’m happy that you two are happy. And I think I need to sit down right now.”

He did and Sammy put his hand on Ben’s shoulder, leaning in a little. “Thanks. Maybe stay a bit more sober at the wedding for your best man speech, though.”

Ben felt his arm whip out almost without his permission, landing on Sammy’s chest. “You want me to be your best man?” he asked, hearing exactly how high his pitch was going but unable to stop it.

Sammy nodded. “Obviously; who else would it be?”

“I dunno, I just - didn’t know if you guys were doing that or not, but -” Ben took a deep breath, trying and failing to steady himself. “Of course I’ll be your best man, I’m so excited!” He threw his arms around Sammy’s neck, feeling tears spring up in his eyes and not caring to stop them. 


End file.
